For this new co-commission under the auspices of Performance Space and Carriageworks, Ross Manning is creating his most ambitious work yet, “an expression of moving colour in space”. Known for his work with light, sound and sculptural interactive installations that engage the viewer physically as well as visually, Manning was offered the opportunity to work within the heritage Carriageworks building. His response will see the installation of an overhead conveyor belt as a complex circuit that hangs in space.
Inspired by scientific and neurological studies about the way the human brain perceives movement, Manning has developed this work to project over an area large enough to occupy the peripheral vision of the audience, and it utilises optical flashpoints. These move from left to right and right to left and vertically to create an “agitational turbulence of light”. Sunlight is used to activate the ambient light (through the building’s skylights) and the created environment is designed to envelop the viewer.
“I am interested in the human relationship with technology, and the potency and urgency of electronic image. Yet our use of machines and our interventions with technology are largely confined and prescriptive.” Like new gaming technologies, Manning’s interest is in extending and developing technologies with explorations of their experiential possibilities that are tailored to an individual.
Manning is self-taught, with his background in electronics (as a TV repairman) and music. His artistic career evolved through the creation of self-playing instruments, with which he would perform. His compositions use coloured light as a sonic element and he sees “music and colour as interchangeable”.
Melody Lines
Ross Manning
Carriageworks
21 October – 6 November
Past meets present in Leyla Steven’s latest exhibition, now showing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and co-curated by Artspace. The Australian-Balinese artists adopts a collaborative approach to restitution, scrutinising the systems of conservation and documentation we have inherited.
Developed in 2022 by Artback NT as part of Apmere Mparntwe—the Australian Ceramics Triennale— touring exhibition Clay on Country, showing now at New England Regional Art Museum, showcases the diversity of ceramics in the Central Desert.
About Face is a smart piece of marketing. The new book on portrait painting from Australia and New Zealand has a mission to change buyers’ minds about the field. But as Jane O’Sullivan discovers, any sales pitch wears thin if it’s repeated often enough, and the close attention to how portrait painting is received by the market means that other important conversations fade to the background.
Emma Phillips has a knack for catching moments of unbridled humanity. In her latest exhibition at ReadingRoom, she shines a light on the breadth of her practice, amalgamating several projects from the last decade.
An exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane sheds a new light on Brisbane’s history, presenting a significant historical archive of photography alongside contemporary artists responding to the original source material.
The National Gallery of Victoria has announced the next instalment of the Winter Masterpieces series, coming in June 2025, will be a return to French Impressionism—an exhibition from 2021 that closed as soon as it opened due to the global pandemic.
